With Chevron Corp. set to hold its annual shareholder meeting this morning, a global network of the company's critics on Tuesday released a report accusing the oil giant of environmental crimes around the world.

A big banner with the words "Chevron Guilty: Clean Up Amazon" fluttering under Richmond-San Rafael bridge on Monday morning, hung by 5 environmentalists who have accused the energy giant of causing rainforest pollution in Amazon, have got them into trouble.

Among the developments this week at Chevron’s raucous annual shareholder meeting—some surprising, some not so—was the oil company’s continuing refusal to settle an $18 billion lawsuit over oil pollution in Ecuador.

A letter from New York state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and several investor groups urged Chevron to settle case, which has dragged on in various forms since 1993.

SAN RAMON -- Activists besieged Chevron at its shareholders meeting here Wednesday, in a gathering punctuated by shouts from attendees, warnings the event would be terminated early and interventions by security guards.

The acrimony at the annual meeting nearly obscured the company's discussion of a performance in 2010 that produced a gusher of profits and a jump in the oil giant's stock price.

Yesterday, along with hundreds of millions of Americans, you likely settled up your taxes formally with the IRS. Incredibly, most of the biggest and most profitable finance and energy companies in the country are paying far less than their fair share. Last, month, Alex wrote about the most startling—and highest profile—incident involving GE, the country's largest corporation.

An Ecuadorean judge ruled Monday in an epic environmental case that Chevron Corp. was responsible for oil drilling contamination in a wide swath of Ecuador's northern jungle and ordered the oil giant to pay $9.5 billion in damages and cleanup costs.

The amount — $8.6 billion plus a legally mandated 10 percent reparations fee — was far below the $27.3 billion award recommended by a court-appointed expert but appeared to be the highest damage award ever issued in an environmental lawsuit.